Why can't we call a magazine a clip?

Good question. Tomato Tomato let's just forget the whole thing.

You can call a magazine a "clip".

You can also call a porpoise a "fish".

It's just a question of whether you want to use words by their correct meanings and be perceived as knowledgeable.

Because it is not the correct terminology.

Different strokes for different folks..........

I guess if you get their drift..... it`s all good.

Because a clip feeds a magazine.

But a magazine doesn't feed a clip.

HOWEVER, if you and I are talking about guns and you say you have a full clip in your 1911, I'll know what you are talking about...

You can call it what you like but effengee nailed it.

The original meaning of "double action" referred to a handgun that could be fired in two different ways.
Hand cock or trigger cock thus 2 modes of fire or double action. Over the years the meaning has changed and now trigger cocking means double action. I remember this all changing when back in the early 90's or maybe late 80's some manufacturers came out with semi autos that they called DAO or double action only pistols. It may have changed before then but I remember this taking hold especially at that time.

Jeff Cooper commented about it in his book "To ride shoot straight and speak the truth". He said we understand what they mean even though it is incorrect.

Lots of things have changed over the years and clip and magazine are just one of them.

'Cause some folks just flat-out worry too much. Gotta make careers of picking fly-poop out of pepper. Not very remunerative, but that's life, I guess...

Sure, using proper nomenclature is to be preferred, and a courteous, polite explanation can be appropriate at times. Unfortunately, however, most corrections are given in an arrogant manner--which doesn't make for friendliness from the recipient.

Not that I'd ever deliberately use the word "clip" around some arrogant snob, you understand.

Why can't we call a magazine a clip??????

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Because it isn't one.
Joe

I call all of mine 'Leroy'.
.

Can you call an en bloc clip a magazine?
I just wonder if the point would be successfully communicated if you were armed with a 1911 and M1 Garand.

Guy needs ammo for the Garand: "toss me another clip"
Guy needs ammo for the 1911: "hand me a mag"

Probably wouldn't work to well when his 1911 runs dry and he asks for a clip and gets an M1 Garand en bloc.

Proper terminology will yield the desired result. IMHO it's just unprofessional for a fellow military member to not use the correct nomenclature.

What Deanimator said. We all rightly find fault when the press refers to Glocks as "service revolvers" and any semiauto rifle as an "AK47". Using incorrect terminology betrays the speaker as misinformed. I know a lot of gun-people take issue at being corrected so if you want to call a magazine a "clip", feel free to do so but don't be so offended when other well-meaning people try to point out your error.

Did you put diesel in your tank or fuel? You might have put diesel fuel in, but you did not just put "diesel" in... It's all terminology . A clip is a stripper. A magazine holds the ammo, bla bla.. I'm tolerant of it.

As said, we don't call a magazine a clip because it ain't one.

Clips don't have springs inside them. They are typically clamp-like devices built to feed rounds INTO an integral magazine.

It's kind of like when computer people get mad at people for calling the whole box sitting beside the monitor the "hard drive". No, that's the system unit. The hard drive is a tiny 3.5" to 2.5" box inside of that big box that contains some spinning magnetic platters.

How do you think most mechanics would look at you if you called a crescent wrench a "ratchet"?

Or a gardener if you called a post-hole digger a shovel?

People who are into a particular profession or hobby tend to frown upon using flat out wrong words when referring to things like that.

Just an example, in the pic below this Steyr pistol uses actual clips as shown. Notice that they look different from a magazine. They're inserted from the top and the rounds stripped off into the magazine that's built into the pistol.

It's all good until someone borrows your diesel truck and puts gasoline in it.

I don't really care what shooters say as much as when anti-gunners use it incorrectly in a derogatory way. "Shooting a high powered automatic assault weapon at point blank range with cop-killer hollow-points from a high-capacity clip." Like that.

Plus you can clip your magazines together with a clamp!

I find a lot of people willing to correct me on "magazine" versus "clip" but who have no problem loading their ammunition feeding device of whichever sort with "bullets."
Somebody wants to correct me on jargon, he better get it ALL right.

Why can't we call a magazine a clip?

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You can.
Words mean what talkers and listeners think they mean. When talking to my father and uncle who learned about shooting from DIs in the Army and Navy, I called that black metal box a "magazine" filled with "rounds."

When I'm shooting with my good ole' buddies and brothers-in-law I don't mind when they ask me to pass them a "clip" full of "bullets." Life is too short to worry about stuff like that.

However, the memory of my uncle and the presence of my father would never allow "clip" to pass from MY lips.

Clips are used to hold cartridges for rapid reload of magazines, which may be fixed as a permanent part of the gun (Mauser C96 pistol, Mauser 98 rifle, etc.) or detachable (M1 Carbine, AR15, etc.)

Since I became aware in the 1950s, "clip" has been used as a civilian synonym for "detachable box magazine" in hunting magazines, gun catalogs and even factory literature. The reason being I suppose that civilians have little use for stripper clips or en bloc clips, and want to save breath or ink and paper.

Perhaps it is more a military thing, with apparently more military people graduating into the civilian shooting arena. My dad served in WWII in New Guinea and the Philipines and requesting an emergency resupply of ammo preloaded in clips rather than magazines would be a huge difference in combat. I kinda got indoctrinated into calling my magazines magazines.

fiddletown said:

Words have meanings. You can choose to understand the meanings of the words you use and to use those words correctly. Or you can choose to ignore the meanings of words and to misuse them. Which you choose tells others something about you.

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Some understand what was meant even if the wrong word was used and continue the conversation as such, others understand what was meant even if the wrong word was used and choose to derail the conversation by correcting and belittling others. Which you choose tells others something about you.

fiddletown got it right in post #20.

Box of bullets means different things to a reloader (100 168gr BTHP bullets) and to a casual plinker (50 .22 LR cartridges). Clips and magazines are really two different things also.

Correction does not have to be done in belittling manner, and correction can be taken as enlightenment.

http://www.nraila.org/issues/firearmsglossary/

CLIP
A device for holding a group of cartridges. Semantic wars have been fought over the word, with some insisting it is not a synonym for "detachable magazine." For 80 years, however, it has been so used by manufacturers and the military. There is no argument that it can also mean a separate device for holding and transferring a group of cartridges to a fixed or detachable magazine or as a device inserted with cartridges into the mechanism of a firearm becoming, in effect, part of that mechanism.

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Sorry... but the NRA tends to agree that clip is indeed synonymous with magazine. A lot of times I don't agree with the NRA, but this time I do.

Or, just use both terms together:
http://www.remington.com/products/a...e-clips/model-597-30-round-magazine-clip.aspx